Dear Madam or Sir,
Our first Newsletter for 2012 starts off with a close look
at the term „part of an undertaking“, which has come
to play an increasingly important role in transfers of
businesses. If a company outsources parts of its production
or administration to another company, this raises
the question of whether the employment relationships
transfer to the other company by operation of law
(section 613a of the German Civil Code). The smaller the
outsourced division, the more significant this question.
However, not every form of outsourcing constitutes the
transfer of a part of an undertaking, so employees will
not always be transferred.
Thereafter, we turn our attention to a case in which an
employee was summarily dismissed for „stealing“ data
from his employer after he had been released from his
duty to work under the terms of a mutual release. The
Hessian Higher Labor Court upheld the legality of the
summary dismissal.
In addition, we take another look at the issue of the time
limit for the carryover of annual leave entitlements in
the future. This topic has again become relevant due to the
judgment handed down by the European Court of Justice
on 22 November 2011. Finally, we consider the questions
of whether an employee who resigns from his job, without
notice, is bound by such resignation, and the question of
whether an employer may dismiss an employee for „lying“.
